Brand experience related to environmental sustainability
Nyholm, Milla (2022)
2022
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2022060816676
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2022060816676
Tiivistelmä
This thesis project explores brand experience creation related to environmental sustainability in B2B air cargo logistics. The objective was to find the most feasible methods for brand experience creation related to environmental sustainability by looking at selected touchpoints along the air cargo customer journey.
The focus on environmental sustainability was determined based on the topicality of the climate change related requirements impacting logistics industries. As environmental sustainability is a topic that all stakeholders within the transport chain need to take into account, the thesis explores brand experience creation based on customer needs. From brand management perspective the focus is on brand management approaches, not on brand development process. The relational and sensory approaches combined were applied to identify feasible methods for brand experience creation.
The project was conducted using service design, which enabled combining customer needs with the case company’s brand related strategic goals. In the beginning of the empirical part customer needs were investigated through semi-structured interviews within the case company’s home market in the Nordic countries. The interviews highlighted customer needs related to information and data, good communications, collaborative approach and product offering. Based on the insights from the interviews and benchmarking, an ideation workshop conducted in three parts was held to ideate potential methods for brand experience creation. After collecting all the ideas, five ideas were selected for prototyping and the prototypes were sent for evaluation to the interviewed customers and internal project participants. The suitability of the combination of the relational and sensory approaches was deemed appropriate based on both internal and customer feedback.
Based on the findings and ideation carried out during this project, a conceptual model for brand experience creation is presented. The model was developed based on air cargo customers’ needs related to environmental sustainability, but it could be used more broadly for brand experience creation in B2B industries.
As this research was conducted from Nordic perspective, further testing of the applicability of the results within other markets is advised. It would also be useful to investigate the opportunities of new technologies in brand experience creation. The applicability of the proposed conceptual model for brand experience creation could be tested in other B2B industries to confirm its applicability in various fields of business.
The focus on environmental sustainability was determined based on the topicality of the climate change related requirements impacting logistics industries. As environmental sustainability is a topic that all stakeholders within the transport chain need to take into account, the thesis explores brand experience creation based on customer needs. From brand management perspective the focus is on brand management approaches, not on brand development process. The relational and sensory approaches combined were applied to identify feasible methods for brand experience creation.
The project was conducted using service design, which enabled combining customer needs with the case company’s brand related strategic goals. In the beginning of the empirical part customer needs were investigated through semi-structured interviews within the case company’s home market in the Nordic countries. The interviews highlighted customer needs related to information and data, good communications, collaborative approach and product offering. Based on the insights from the interviews and benchmarking, an ideation workshop conducted in three parts was held to ideate potential methods for brand experience creation. After collecting all the ideas, five ideas were selected for prototyping and the prototypes were sent for evaluation to the interviewed customers and internal project participants. The suitability of the combination of the relational and sensory approaches was deemed appropriate based on both internal and customer feedback.
Based on the findings and ideation carried out during this project, a conceptual model for brand experience creation is presented. The model was developed based on air cargo customers’ needs related to environmental sustainability, but it could be used more broadly for brand experience creation in B2B industries.
As this research was conducted from Nordic perspective, further testing of the applicability of the results within other markets is advised. It would also be useful to investigate the opportunities of new technologies in brand experience creation. The applicability of the proposed conceptual model for brand experience creation could be tested in other B2B industries to confirm its applicability in various fields of business.